Okay so i'v been video editing for a while now but.....i'v always avoided Mkv files because i can't convert them.....but now i have to because i can only find my clips in Mkv format....can anybody please help?

Nah, that's BS, it's all about finding the right deals. I recently got all of Eden of the East in Blu-ray with free shipping at a convenient 8 eur price... and I am more than positive that anybody can afford that (in case you're wondering, it is NOT a bootleg, but the official release).Same went for other anime, I got all the DVDs of Last Exile for less than 12 eur in past, to name another.Sure, they tend to cost a lot when they are new, but if you can wait and find the right discounts, it really is no issue.Now, japanese prices are another thing... but that's another matter altogether. For stuff that is licensed, price hardly is a real issue.

Nah, that's BS, it's all about finding the right deals. I recently got all of Eden of the East in Blu-ray with free shipping at a convenient 8 eur price... and I am more than positive that anybody can afford that (in case you're wondering, it is NOT a bootleg, but the official release).Same went for other anime, I got all the DVDs of Last Exile for less than 12 eur in past, to name another.Sure, they tend to cost a lot when they are new, but if you can wait and find the right discounts, it really is no issue.Now, japanese prices are another thing... but that's another matter altogether. For stuff that is licensed, price hardly is a real issue.

When you have 0 dollars of any sort to your name, like me, I'd say you don't have the money to buy DVD's lol.

I am terribly sorry, but this forum is getting almost as useless as Linux lists were about 5 years ago. Everyone there were hard-core, professional programmers who knew everything, and is someone asked a question equivalent to "How do you drag-n-drop an MKV into a normal editing program so you can start mixing clips and get on with your project?" he was pretty much skewered by the know-it-alls, mostly ignored, or supplied with an answer only a developer could understand: "... and then just recompile your whole kernal and you're done... IT'S EASY" they would say.

I can ALMOST get the job done using AVIDEMUX. You can drag drop mkv's into it (no luck with the new Hi10p stuff though) and it will open them cleanly and strip off the subtitles, but:

a) You are on your own (i.e, there's no coherent instructions for) if you want to KEEP the subtitles, and b) if you multiply the number of output format options times the possible configuration per output option you get an exponential number of guess-and-trys so that personally I would probably be retired before I stumble upon the right way to output to a decent old uncompressed AVI that I can then drag-n-drop into Virtual Dub or Adobe Premiere Elements 8 and just get going.

No sir, the point isn't that, because reading one of the other thousand topics with the same question in which I tell them to use ffvideosource and to Read ErMaC & AbsoluteDestiny's Friendly AMV Guides Lovingly Overhauled Largely by Zarxrax if they don't understand would have worked without opening a new one.The point is that this hobby is already at risk, and we should definitely try to be less arses about it and more willing to chip in money if we want to show that AMVs aren't just dangerous since we actually buy stuff. If we just go on and show that we download our sources and don't buy anything, we'll get to the point where AMVers = Pirates and we can say goodbye for any hope of tolerance for our hobby.

I w'd, avidemux is essentially a gui, it'll support hi10p if you want it to, but is a terrible program in general and breaks on a lot of mkv and general AVC files. I never had any issues with linux or any other mailing list (aside from one or two ffmpeg devs being a bit too elitist for their own good) like you've said, and I'm not a particularly strong programmer either.

Additionally, if you REALLY care about this content and don't just want to be famous on youtube or something, you would find the money to actually support what you're doing instead of leeching off the good will of companies. I know several cons where local companies have just said fuck it and banned amvs altogether so the least you can do is support the industry in Japan so they continue producing and licensing this shit out. I'm not sure if you've noticed but the market for anime in Japan has shifted towards the hardcore fans more, less regular people care about it now, imo anyway. The opposite is true in the west but given the content originates here, it makes sense that they'd protect local industry first. Buy the damn DVDs and stop whining.

Mister Hatt wrote:... I never had any issues with linux or any other mailing list (aside from one or two ffmpeg devs being a bit too elitist for their own good)

Just a note; I was talking about the way things were 5 or 6 years ago; now things have indeed gotten better on Linux lists.

Also - on topic about handling or converting mkvs for use in common editing programs <- THAT is the topic, because that is the original question....

I've recently had good luck in linux with kdenlive. It also opens up the new Hi10p stuff. It's a lot less powerful than Sony Vegas in that it offers a suite of canned effects, but it should be useful for laying down a basic uncompressed avi which can then be brought into a more sophisticated, pay-for-it program like AfterEffects or Premiere, where you can do finer surgery for timing, or special effects treatments.

To touch on the side issues others have brought up, of course we do have to be careful with hobby-based, non-criminal use of copyrighted material, and to keep things on that side of the line. I do feel that the original poster has enough plausible deniability so that we shouldn't shut down a reasonable discussion of convenient tools which might help. He or she may be working with content which has not yet been restricted by license - you cannot tell.